well im already half way through the DM version, that will be free to download and play online.  Im not sure if people here understand how unbeilevably complicated a STRAT game type would be to develop.  Brob is fluent enough in Uscript to know, but without actually trying to program in Uscript, there is no way a noob could know how complicated it would be to create. Im knee deep into this DM game, and I cannot imagine how a STRAT game would get made without: building on previous releases and attracting people whom are profficeint in Uscript.  The only person whom has enough Uscript experience, that is still involved with this project is Brob.  Unless hes willing to write the Uscript, or someone else is willing to do it: any game type resembling STRAT is not realistic.
   
I dont mean to step on any toes here, but Im one of the few people that has any idea how difficult it is to program in Uscript. 

I personally would prefer to see it remain freely available. My main motivation is just to see another BZ game.

Seconded.

I'm positive that if money became involved, legal issues and people being greedy would drive this project into the ground.

I'd like to start drawing up some ideas I've had for a new Battlezone game. I loved both games, and have been patiently waiting for something like it to come out. As I have been denied that, this seems like the way to go. Any and all opinions/criticizm on the sketches will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

brobinson's Angels Fall First is one of them

I wasn't involved with Angels Fall First. 

I personally would prefer to see it remain freely available. My main motivation is just to see another BZ game.

hmmm... very interesting point zazz 

Activision may allow us a 'special' liscense that allows us limited access to the BZ IP, but in exchange for a percentage of the gross sales (just like the Epic liscence). this would be a great point to bring to activision.

as a non-profit we could just require a 'donation' to server access.   

Oh yeah... Hmm I wonder what application I was thinking of.

If there where hard-fast rules on copyright, and that non-profit organisations with paid employees where given a free pass, then that would be great.
Unfortunatly it's a big fat grey area, so we need to stay on Activision's good-side.
When we approach them we could ask if we're allowed to charge customers a small fee or accept donations to compensate ourselves - if they agreed to it, I would be happy to accept fees, but I don't think it's likely.

not necesasarily, a non-profit has employees that get piad they just dont declare a profit on the financial statements

also, i think the lic with Epic is:  $99 for the lic then they get 25% of the gross sales after it hits $5,000. 

We could become a not-for-profit organisation, but 'compensation' still means that we as individuals are working for profit.

Licencing from Epic isn't a problem. You only need to start paying them after the first $200,000 or something silly like that.
As for nobody willing to work without a return on investment, plenty of games have been developed for free - brobinson's Angels Fall First is one of them, as well as mods and every fan-game out there too (Not to mention open-source applications).

I'm afraid that as soon as money is involved, it all gets a bit too risky for me.
Personaly, I'm only happy to work on the project if it's free.
My ROI is; something to add to my résumé, as a learning experience, just for fun & because I want a new BZ.

I think the real way to motivate people is just to push ahead and get some visual progress made to inspire people & get to a point where development can be structured & specific tasks given out, so everyone can work together.

That's my 2¢ anyway...

we could still sell the game and it could still be not-for-profit, however would need a non-profit status (like a church or charity) to be considerd a non-profit organization. 

ALso, i don't think will get licsenced from Epic unless we sell the game. unless we had a special liscence like 'whizzle'. we would have to contact Epic about this.
This may be the biggest hangup to getting this done.  unless we have a plan to pay people for the work theyve done, either wage/salary/or percentage of sales.

we need to wiegh the pros and cons of liscensing from Activision or liscence from Epic.
Alot of the feed back ive been getting is to get around the IP problem with Activision.
Also, maybe we need to reevaluate the marketing plan to update it. most of the people that were part of this project dropped out months ago and havent been seen since.

I personally would like to have a ROI to compensate for the 1,000s of hours spent on this project. Im already over 100 hours.
 I dont know, but maybe we should approach this like 'how to we get this done' vs 'how do we get this kinda done'

what do you think, zazz 

We discussed pricing before you arrived & we concluded that this game should (and could) only be not-for-profit. Any money made on the project will pretty much eliminate our 'fair use' defence against copyright claims & would not win us the favour of Activision.

I'm afraid this can only be developed for the love of the game. That's why fan-games are always free & take so long to finish.